Michelle Carras takes her medication, meditates daily and focuses on her goal of completing the book she is writing by September. Yet in the back of her mind is the anxiety that perhaps this control is an illusion, another stage in her decades-long mental illness. "Even if I talk fast, I worry that I'm getting hyper-manic," she said. Carras says she hopes to share her successes and struggles as a mentor in Anne Arundel County's first peer-to-peer education course for the mentally ill. The nine-week course, which will start next month in Glen Burnie, will be taught by three people who will use their paths to recovery to inspire others.

Mary Kathryn Farinholt, an advocate for the poor and homeless, died Jan. 26 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the Gilchrest Center for Hospice Care. She was 78 and lived at Broadmead in Cockeysville. Mary Kathryn Snyder was born in Philadelphia and worked as a teen-ager in a box factory, cultivating a lifelong sympathy with unions. She won a full scholarship to Bryn Mawr College, earning a bachelor's degree in history in 1945. She received a master's degree in guidance and secondary education from Columbia University in 1965.

Mary Kathryn Farinholt, an advocate for the poor and homeless, died Jan. 26 of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma at the Gilchrest Center for Hospice Care. She was 78 and lived at Broadmead in Cockeysville. Mary Kathryn Snyder was born in Philadelphia and worked as a teen-ager in a box factory, cultivating a lifelong sympathy with unions. She won a full scholarship to Bryn Mawr College, earning a bachelor's degree in history in 1945. She received a master's degree in guidance and secondary education from Columbia University in 1965.

Joseph A. Farinholt, one of the most highly decorated World War II combat veterans in the nation, who earned four Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, Belgium's Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart, died of heart failure Tuesday at Carroll County General Hospital. He was 79 and lived in Finksburg. "He was a true World War II hero and an extraordinary soldier," said Col. Howard S. Freedlander, executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. Born and raised in Catonsville where he attended high school, Mr. Farinholt was just shy of his 16th birthday in 1938, when he walked into the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, lied about his age, and enlisted in the Maryland National Guard.

WESTMINSTER - Students at the Carroll County Education Center are having to get used to Robin L. Farinholt in her new position.A special needs teacher at the school, the 36-year-old has accepted the job of interim principal at the school, following former principal Harry T.Fogle's appointment to assistant supervisor of special education.Although she has applied for the principal position, Farinholt said she would need to take courses in group dynamics and curriculum design from Western Maryland College to meet the job's requirements.

The snow that covered windshields and roads Thursday also fogged thevision of our photographer. The boy pictured sledding on Friday's front page of the Anne Arundel County Sun is not Nick Ausborn. It is Kenny Farinholt.This is Nick Ausborn.

A lifetime ago in war-torn northern Germany, a lone American soldier fired an anti-tank gun at a column of panzers, immobilizing the first tank but not its artillery. The tank returned fire, spraying the soldier with bullets and shrapnel. He was shot 20 times, his right leg crushed, bleeding profusely and useless. That action and what ensued Nov. 26, 1944, could earn Joseph A. Farinholt the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon a member of the armed services of the United States.

Future recreation programs in Carroll should integrate people with disabilities, the county's Recreation and Parks Board said Wednesday night.The board voted unanimously to adopt a report that recommends allowing disabled people to participate in the same recreation programs as others who are not.Carroll County could be a "front-runner" in the movement to integrate disabled people into recreation programs, said Robin Farinholt, who chaired the committee that...

Try again, folks.People in the community get a second chance to rename the Carroll County Education Center, and submissions have to be at the school by Oct. 21.The school improvement team had settled last spring on a new name, Morgan Run School.But that name turns out to be taken, and the owners of the historic Morgan Run Schoolhouse in Shipley are not inclined to let the designation be borrowed.In June, Ronald and Deborah Zepp asked the Carroll County Board of Education not to use "Morgan Run."

Joseph A. Farinholt, one of the most highly decorated World War II combat veterans in the nation, who earned four Silver Stars, a Bronze Star, Belgium's Croix de Guerre and a Purple Heart, died of heart failure Tuesday at Carroll County General Hospital. He was 79 and lived in Finksburg. "He was a true World War II hero and an extraordinary soldier," said Col. Howard S. Freedlander, executive officer of the Maryland National Guard. Born and raised in Catonsville where he attended high school, Mr. Farinholt was just shy of his 16th birthday in 1938, when he walked into the 5th Regiment Armory in Baltimore, lied about his age, and enlisted in the Maryland National Guard.

A lifetime ago in war-torn northern Germany, a lone American soldier fired an anti-tank gun at a column of panzers, immobilizing the first tank but not its artillery. The tank returned fire, spraying the soldier with bullets and shrapnel. He was shot 20 times, his right leg crushed, bleeding profusely and useless. That action and what ensued Nov. 26, 1944, could earn Joseph A. Farinholt the Medal of Honor, the highest award for valor in action against an enemy force that can be bestowed upon a member of the armed services of the United States.

When Mary Whitehead heard that two policemen had been murdered on the Eastern Shore recently, she experienced a familiar feeling: hopelessness. Francis M. Zito, the man charged in the killings, suffers from schizophrenia. For nearly 30 years, Whitehead has struggled to take care of her 60-year-old sister, who also suffers from the brain disorder that can lead to hallucinations and paranoid delusions. Whitehead lives with the fear that her sister could also turn violent. Zito's high-profile case underscores the difficulties faced by thousands of relatives of the mentally ill, many of whom worry that tragedy could be just around the corner.

At the height of World War II, a young Army sergeant was promised a battlefield commission. Two days later, he was severely wounded. For the next few years, he recovered, and an officer's insignia became a distant memory. Then came marriage, four children and decades of work on the family's three Carroll County farms. That the promotion has come 56 years after the promise, when he is 77, in no way diminishes the honor for Joseph A. Farinholt. The decorated veteran has pinned silver lieutenant's bars to his military cap and placed the notification of his promotion among an array of combat service awards at his Finksburg home.

According to Army regulations, a Silver Star -- one of the military's highest honors -- is awarded to a "person who is cited for gallantry in action against an enemy of the United States." But World War II veteran Joseph Farinholt, a wiry 77-year-old with little patience for military-speak, translates the requirements this way: "Be as crazy as hell." Farinholt should know. He was awarded the Silver Star four times during World War II -- the only soldier to do so, local veterans groups believe.

That school on South Center Street may finally have a new name tomorrow if the Carroll Board of Education votes in favor of Carroll Springs School.That's the new name favored by the school improvement team at the school, now called the Carroll County Education Center, and it's the name Superintendent R. Edward Shilling is recommending for school board approval.The board meets at 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center.The board will discuss several other issues at the regular monthly meeting, including a policy that further clarifies a ban on staff-student dating.

The new school year brought a turnover in teachers at the Carroll County Education Center. Unfortunately, the turnover included teachers who were licensed to drive the school's buses.But some county school bus drivers have been volunteering to transport special educationstudents to out-of-class lessons and field trips."It's so nice to have people come forward like this," said Robin L. Farinholt, school principal. "We have some real generous people here."At least one of the school's 10 homerooms ventures outside the building for classroom instruction each week.

While baseball's management and union negotiating teams play a bluffing game trying to divide shares of a billion-dollar industry, more than a thousand workers at Camden Yards are without jobs as Opening Day approaches.Most are avid fans. Many earn minimum wage or slightly above. Few comprehend the complexities of the negotiations.And nobody understands why, with so much at stake, there can't be a settlement to the dispute.During any given game at Oriole Park at Camden Yards, approximately 1,200 people are working.

That school on South Center Street may finally have a new name tomorrow if the Carroll Board of Education votes in favor of Carroll Springs School.That's the new name favored by the school improvement team at the school, now called the Carroll County Education Center, and it's the name Superintendent R. Edward Shilling is recommending for school board approval.The board meets at 5 p.m. tomorrow at the Carroll County Career and Technology Center.The board will discuss several other issues at the regular monthly meeting, including a policy that further clarifies a ban on staff-student dating.